Category: Giveaways

We are excited to announce that we are giving away a prize pack of Lundberg Products! We’re giving away various Lundberg products including Lundberg Rice Chips and Lundberg Thin Stackers. To enter please follow the directions below. Good luck!

March is National Nutrition Month! National Nutrition Month is a month to share nutrition education and of course to celebrate some of favorite foods. We couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the start of March than by sharing our original recipe using KIND granola clusters. We mixed some of our favorite things into one cookie – cranberries, walnuts, and of course KIND clusters granola!

Just last week we posted a blog on the benefits of oatmeal and links to some tasty recipes. To continue the celebration, we wanted to host a giveaway! That’s right, we’re giving away a bunch of gluten-free oatmeal from Glutenfreeda! Enter for your chance to win below, good luck!

Here in the USA, Thanksgiving is the day to celebrate the harvest. Thanksgiving dinner is informally yet nationally known by all as the meal and even day of binging on harvest foods, including turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and, of course, a pie of apples, pumpkin, or sweet potatoes.

How did we get from giving thanks to a day that sometimes seems focused simply on overeating? For many of us there is nothing to be more thankful for than a healthy family. So how can we return to the roots of gratitude of Thanksgiving, while celebrating over a traditional healthy and wholesome family meal?

As you read this blog, consider how you and your family can go back to the roots of the first Thanksgiving in 1621, when the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag natives gave thanks for the plentiful harvest. Both pilgrims and the Wampanoag natives were accustomed to giving thanks by feasting and sport, whether recreational or dance (the latter referring specifically the natives)1.

The original feast likely included wild fowl of some sort, but not necessarily turkey. Rather, it was geese and waterfowl such as ducks that probably appeared on the first-ever Thanksgiving menu1. And if there was stuffing of the fowl, it would have been made with herbs and onions; perhaps the Pilgrims even used oats. What about cranberry sauce? Being that sugar was quite expensive at that time, it can be assumed our sauce version was not on the table. Rather, cranberries were found in recipes of Wampanoag dishes, and “possibly added tartness to a Pilgrim sauce1.” However, it was “fifty years later when an English writer would mention boiling this quintessential New England berry with sugar for a “Sauce to eat with… Meat.”1” Potatoes are from South America and were not yet a staple in New England’s diet. Wampanoag did eat other tubers including Jerusalem artichokes, groundnuts, Indian turnip and even water lily. Pumpkins and squashes were native to New England but again, sugar, butter and piecrust were not available and thus pumpkin pie was not on the first menu1. “Today’s typical Thanksgiving dinner menu is actually more than 200 years younger than the 1621 harvest celebration and reflects the holiday’s roots in Colonial New England of the 1700s and Victorian nostalgia for an idyllic time when hearth and home, family and community were valued over industrial progress and change.1”

A Thanksgiving Giveaway!

We’re all thankful to be spending our Thanksgiving with family and friends this year. To spread some holiday cheer we wanted to host a giveaway! Our friends at Litehouse Foods were kind enough to gift one of our readers with a spice set (perfect for holiday cooking)!

BLUE BALLOON SONGWRITING FOR SMALL PEOPLE is a music school founded by songwriter, performer, artist and former Saint Ann’s teacher, Rachel Lipson. Students at Blue Balloon learn to write, sing, play and record their own compositions, crafting songs more reminiscent of Lou Reed, The Shangri-Las, Vashti Bunyan and Woody Guthrie than the typical nursery rhyme. The students create fantastically smart, beautiful songs while learning how to play an instrument.

Blue Balloon Songwriting for Small People is centered upon creativity, self-expression, self-confidence and having fun. The songwriting lessons are an activity the children truly look forward to. They take pride in their songs and they take pride in themselves as songwriters. They serenade their loved ones and collaborate with their friends. They know the songs they will write are all their own so they write and sing them!

Ask any parent what their biggest battle is with their children and they will likely say getting them to eat their fruits and veggies. With school back in session, it can sometimes be hard to monitor how much of the packed lunch your kids actually ate.

Here are a few tips and ideas to get them to eat all of the fruits and veggies you pack for them:

1. Bright colored containers not only catch the eye but depending on how small or large they are, it can also help our little ones stay engaged in their lunch as they keep opening up “surprises” in each container.

2. Kids not only love shapes but it also helps them become a little more curious about their fruits and vegetables which helps make it less of a struggle to get them to try some. You can do things such as cutting whole wheat pita bread with their favorite cookie cutters and making a sandwich or even creating a hummus veggie pizza.

3. Grab your melon baller and scoop some of their favorite fruits to help make a great fruit salad. The non-traditional shapes of the fruits will be more appealing.

4. Slice veggies such as cucumbers, zucchini, squash, and carrots with a crinkle cheese cutter to give them a new shape and texture.

5. Kids love being able to make their own food, so you can sauté fajita style veggies and pack in the lunch with additional healthy toppings such as a little Greek yogurt, spinach, tomatoes, etc. so that way they have a variety of veggies to choose from and get excited about being involved in making their own meals.

6. If your kids like guacamole, you can make this amazing version that also adds peas in it to give them that extra serving of veggies! Just replace one of the avocados with a small bag of frozen peas to your favorite guacamole recipe.

7. Serving veggies with hummus is a great way to introduce veggies to even the pickiest eaters. Most children love to dip their food in things and with the variety of flavors hummus comes in, if there is one they love, just try giving them bite size veggies to start.

8. For the younger children, you can try turning their plate full of fruits and veggies into a work of art. A great way to do this is to create a rainbow scene on their plate or in the lunchbox by incorporating fruits and veggies of all colors. Another way to do this is to make colorful fruit and veggie kabobs. You can add cubes of their favorite cheese to make them more appealing.

9. A longtime staple in most homes has always been Mac & Cheese. I love making these Mac & Cheese muffins for lunches, which are easy to pack. Adding butternut squash in them not only adds to the creaminess, but also gives that extra serving of veggies! I also love using quinoa pasta in place of whole wheat so that I can get that extra protein punch as well!

10. Butterfly bags are a great way to send berries, grapes, baby carrots, and cherry tomatoes to school. Decorate a wooden clothespin with your child’s favorite colors and fill each half of the sandwich bag with a different item and clip the pin in the center to make a butterfly.

11. Make mini cucumber sandwiches using slices of cucumbers with hummus, tuna salad, etc. between 2 slices of cumbers.

While it might continue to be a challenge incorporating some fun ways to incorporate fruits and veggies into the lunch box will help them become more comfortable with the idea of eating them on a daily basis.

We are happy to host this giveaway with one of Laura’s favorite instructors, Jen G.! With tomorrow’s blog post focusing on beauty and body image. We wanted to focus on internal health as opposed to external health and appearance. Yoga is a wonderful way to treat your body to a restorative workout. Jen has been kind enough to donate an hour in-home private yoga session with one of our lucky readers! (P.S. moms-to-be, Jen is certified in prenatal yoga!)

Restrictions do apply: expires one year from issue; only valid for travel to Manhattan and certain areas of Brooklyn.If you live in Manhattan we encourage you to enter below!